Kolon and Descente join hands with the national team: How will Anta play its “new Olympic card”?

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Anta appears to be further systematically allocating its scarce top-tier sports resources within the group to its multi-brand matrix.

Recently, Anta officially announced that Kolon Sports has become an official partner of the national rock climbing team.

Earlier this August, Descente also took over the sponsorship rights of China's national triathlon team, replacing previous partner 361°.

The above sponsorship marks the first collaboration between the national rock climbing team and Kolon, as well as Kolon's first entry into national-level sports resources in the Chinese market.

For Descente, after two national team sponsorships focused on skiing in 2023, this partnership marks its official entry into the professional field of triathlon, a category highly aligned with the brand's DNA.

This series of moves shows that after consolidating the channel capabilities of its sub-brands, Anta is leveraging sports sponsorship as a strategic tool to inject professional momentum and brand recognition.

Whether this round of resource integration can help construct a differentiated narrative in professional sports may affect the growth potential and market positioning of this "second echelon" of brands within Anta.

Seizing the Olympic Card

Olympic marketing and national team sponsorships are Anta's core strategies, which it has skillfully utilized and proven successful.

Since partnering with the Chinese Olympic Committee in 2009, Anta has consecutively served at the London, Rio, Tokyo, and Beijing Olympic Games, reaching its peak influence as the local brand during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

By providing professional sports gear to the Chinese sports delegation, Anta successfully built a user perception of "professional and reliable" at the main brand level, deeply binding national honor to its brand image.

Over the 16-year sponsorship period, Anta's annual revenue grew from less than 6 billion yuan to over 70 billion yuan.

However, the external environment has changed.

In early 2025, Li Ning will officially replace Anta as the Chinese Olympic Committee's new top-tier apparel partner for the next cycle.

Although Anta still retains its global status as "Official Apparel Supplier of the International Olympic Committee," continuing to secure and cultivate national team resources at home remains crucial for sustaining the brand influence and professional image Anta has built over the years through Olympic marketing.

Since the start of this year, Anta has renewed partnerships with traditional strength sports such as gymnastics, trampoline, and rhythmic gymnastics, and has also inked deals with the Chinese national teams in archery, three-on-three basketball, swimming, and the continental cycling team.

At the group level, Anta, for the first time, is entering more vertical professional fields like the national rock climbing team and triathlon team through sub-brands Kolon and Descente, deploying a multi-brand matrix to develop niche and specialized segments.

Compared to the Chinese Olympic Committee sponsorship rights, national team resources may be slightly less prominent overall, but they have the advantage of spanning non-Olympic year events, continuously providing professional storytelling material for the brands.

Whether it's rock climbing or triathlon, both sports are rapidly gaining public attention as the national teams achieve breakthroughs on the international stage, and they both show clear signs of becoming mainstream.

Since rock climbing was included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2016, the sport’s popularity in China has increased significantly.

It then became an event at the National Games and further expanded through the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In terms of infrastructure, as of January 2025, the number of commercial climbing gyms in mainland China has reached 811, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%.

At the Paris Olympics, Lin Xinyu ranked 28th in the women's triathlon, the best Olympic finish ever for a Chinese athlete in the event.

The strong performances of the national teams have not only sparked public interest but have also helped these professional, entertaining sports step into the public spotlight.

An industry insider who closely follows sports brands told Xin Feng that the core value of sponsorship does not entirely depend on event level or frequency of exposure, but rather on whether a brand can achieve long-term alignment with the sport's trend trajectory, demographic structure, and spiritual tone.

"In fast-growing fields like rock climbing and triathlon, sub-brands with a clear demographic focus, like Kolon and Descente, are actually more strategically suited than the main brand," the insider added.

In their view, the projects Kolon and Descente are laying out generally have high professional thresholds and an elite image. While connecting with high-net-worth sports consumers, they also strategically complement the main Anta brand.

Building a New Fulcrum

From Kolon and Descente’s own perspectives, both need to quickly pave the way for their next stages of development.

In the first half of the year, the "all other brands" category represented by Kolon and Descente saw revenue grow 53.7% year-on-year to 10.678 billion yuan.

Among them, Kolon is the fastest growing brand, with nearly 80% growth.

Against the backdrop of slowing main brand growth, Kolon and Descente are being counted on by the group to reach the scale of 10 billion yuan each.

The previous "one bird, two trees, three routes" development path may be insufficient to support this goal.

Take Kolon, dubbed the "mini-Arc'teryx", as an example: The brand established itself in China with mountaineering and camping gear, yet its rapid increase in visibility mainly came from crossover collaborations and fashion-forward marketing.

Within Anta's multi-brand system, Kolon is positioned between professional and trendy: it's more focused on functionality than Fila, but more urban and fashionable than Descente, which is also an outdoor brand.

Some consumers regard it as an affordable "Arc'teryx alternative," valuing its "broader range of choices at the same price and lower prices for similar functions."

While these traits help Kolon quickly establish a differentiated perception in the competitive mid- to high-end outdoor market, they also bring potential challenges—

Overreliance on cultural storytelling and trendy tactics can make the brand vulnerable to changes in consumer taste cycles and may continuously dilute its technical prowess and brand equity in professional sports.

As more outdoor brands accelerate their entry into China and competition intensifies, returning to the professional sports space and building new differentiated narratives has become a necessary strategy.

Descente positions itself as a professional sports brand in high-end cross-training, skiing, and triathlon.

For a long time, skiing products have been its core category—the brand name "Descente" comes from French, meaning "ski descent," embodying deep skiing genes.

Triathlon, as a composite sport involving swimming, cycling, and running, creates diverse demands for professional gear such as swimwear, cycling helmets, and wetsuits. The sport not only requires complex gear systems but also commands generally higher per-customer sales, offering considerable commercial potential.

The "run-ride" composite scenario derived from triathlon closely aligns with Descente’s focus on its running shoe product line.

Descente’s DELTA PRO EXP V2 running shoes, launched in April, are promoted as specially designed for triathlon and marathon. The "T2" mark on the shoe refers to the “second transition zone” in a race, when athletes switch from cycling to running, further reinforcing the product’s professional sports association.

However, a consulting industry expert told Xin Feng that for companies that are highly dependent on brand symbolism, the underlying growth logic will not fundamentally change just because of localized marketing or product strategy adjustments.

For Kolon and Descente, continually raising brand awareness—and leveraging this foundation to expand retail formats—remains the primary growth pathway.

At this year’s interim results briefing, Lai Shixian, Anta’s executive director and co-CEO, noted that while Kolon's past performance was outstanding in the Northeast and Northern regions, it has also made breakthroughs outside the Northeast since the beginning of this year.

In June, Kolon's first national KOLON KRAFT flagship store officially opened in Chengdu Taikoo Li, and new stores in Urumqi, Chongqing, and Jinan are also in the preparation phase.

According to analyst Jiang Xuefeng of Huaxing Securities, as Descente’s spring/summer SKU offering grows more comprehensive, the brand is gradually penetrating southern markets from its traditional stronghold in the Northeast.

Building on this, Descente has also opened stores in ski resorts, golf courses, and children’s segments, achieving deeper segmentation by category and consumer.

Regional expansion, category extension, and binding to professional events all serve one grander goal: building a compelling and sustainable brand narrative.

This may well determine how far Kolon and Descente can ultimately grow within the Anta system.

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